If you’ve used Windows Live Messenger in Windows 7, you’ve probably noticed that instead of minimizing to the system tray, the taskbar button always stays put. Luckily you can force Messenger to work the way you are expecting with a simple tweak.

To accomplish this, we are going to use the Compatibility Mode feature—which will trick the application into using the old behavior for previous versions of Windows.

Force Messenger Into the System Tray

Firstly, you’ll need to close Windows Live Messenger completely by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Close window.